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esident Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, filed a lawsuit against Robert Mueller Wednesday, alleging the special counsel's investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia exceeds his legal authority and asked the court to dismiss the case against him. Manafort's civil lawsuit names both Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Muller in May, and is tasked with overseeing the special council's operations.

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The lawsuit accuses Rosenstein of going too far to, quote, grant Mr. Mueller carte blanche to investigate and pursue criminal charges in connection with anything he stumbles across while investigating, no matter how remote. Manafort was indicted in late October for money laundering and other charges related to years of foreign lobbying.

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His lawyers say those charges date back years before he began working for Trump and go beyond Mueller's jurisdiction. Manafort's lawsuit comes as his old boss tries to cast Mueller's investigation as a politically motivated witch hunt. Which he said in a New York Times interview last week, quote, makes the country look very bad.